


The Easiest Decision

by maxsaystowrite



Category: TAZ: Amnesty, The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Gen, spoilers for episode 14, written right after episode 14
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-07-03 13:03:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15819417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maxsaystowrite/pseuds/maxsaystowrite
Summary: Ned was lying in bed as Aubrey talked with Mama, he was lying awake. Now, he has to choose how to move forward.





	The Easiest Decision

**Author's Note:**

> This was written right after episode 14! I know i'll be proven wrong! Just have some fun with the angst for now.

Ned didn't mind Aubrey's fire. Sure the experience was traumatic, but Ned would pride himself on his ironclad hold on his own mind. Ever since he first saw that fireball he knew there was something familiar about it. Something about the color and the way it moved. 

 

Kepler's chilly pocket in the West Virginia mountains allowed him to wear long sleeves and jackets all the time. No one in his years in Kepler has noticed the burns up his arms or on his legs. Even the chain like scar on his finger tips have gone unnoticed.  No one wanted to look at the fingers of a thief. 

 

But the fire that tore through thick steel had a familiar burn that seemed to be attracted to his skin. He jumped out of the way of the projectile. And at first, he only thought it was a new fear of fire, getting too close to too many of Aubrey's blasts. It was instinct forged years ago. 

 

That fire in that mansion, it raged like nothing else before. Ned’s blood ran cold the moment Aubrey started to murmur about her family's past. Ned’s fingers twitched hot just where his scars were. Dread boiled in his stomach and there was a pain in his chest that had nothing to do with his bruised ribs. 

 

That night was a disaster. It was supposed to be in and out, stealing a few irresistibly shiny things and taking off. Ned didn't plan for fire, he didn't plan for magic, he didn't plan for death. 

 

The screams he heard that night never haunted his dreams. Though as he was lying in the hospital bed, they laced in and out with his consciousness. He remembered multiple screams. He recognized one of them now.  Aubrey let out that same scream as the sign fell and she watched Duck die. 

 

She muttered to herself as Duck came running out. She cried harder when Duck tackled her in a hug. She whispered  _ I'm sorry _ when she wrapped her arms around him. 

 

Ned could see all of it, not registering any of it. Just a memory that couldn't be his, there were no thoughts to go with it. 

 

Aubrey doted on Ned as he recovered. Bringing him food and drinks and even his favorite jerky that the doctors denied him.  He wondered if she blamed herself for what happened to him too. 

 

“You should be out finding answers, flamethrower. Not sitting in here taking care of me.”

 

“No, Ned, it's okay, really. I just… maybe need some time away from the magic, you know?”

 

“It'll happen again if you don't practice.” 

 

Aubrey’s head snapped up. Ned couldn't tell if there was hurt or sadness in her eyes. He just knew the tightness in his chest came back as she looked at him with those eyes. And then she decided she couldn't look at him anymore. 

 

“I'm. I'm gonna go? Okay? I'll… I'll be back… Soon.” 

 

She didn't mean soon. And he knew that. In her absence, and his bed rest, Ned had time to think. He had time to think about Aubrey and her being and her knowing. She was such a sweet kid with a heart so full and open. She helped him in the Cryptonomica, she was never apprehensive about going along with his schemes. A part of him didn't want to give that up. 

 

Somewhere inside of him, Ned knew there was no coming back from this. There was no coming back from Aubrey knowing that he was the spark that set her mother's death in motion. There's no coming back from knowing that he had her family's most precious heirloom locked under glass as a cheap display piece with a made up backstory. There was no coming back from her knowing that he knew there was a family in there, a mother, father, and their little girl, and he didn't care. 

 

Ned didn't care about what he could do to a family, a person. He never thought too hard about it, sure, but he still didn't care. He never cared to think about the damage he did to the people living in those homes he entered. He was quiet so he wouldn't get caught, and nothing else. When he slipped in and out without a sound or a stir it was a job well done, not because he got what he wanted, but because he didn't get caught. 

 

Once, he robbed an apartment, just one woman living alone. Nothing of note besides the jewelry she wore every day. When he broke in, he was clumsy and loud and didn't notice the soft blue glow of late night cartoons in the dark. She screamed and she was shaking, there were tears in her eyes. He told her not to move, and it'll be easier that way. He took her jewelry box, a little glass thing with butterflies, a child's jewelry box. He left with her still shaking on the couch. Ned didn't think of her often. Only when he's short a few hundred and wondered if he could find another small jewelry box to pawn. 

 

But he was younger then, quicker, handsomer. He used to be imposing with his height and a fair amount of muscle. Now he was round and grey and even the older folks in Kepler don't look his way. That was fine, of course. He didn't want to be noticed here. He didn't want to run into his past here. He wanted to live here. He wanted to die here. Ned was aiming for one more disappearing act. His new fame and friends might cause a hiccup with that though. 

 

The Cryptonomica was a home, a business, and an outlet, pouring in tourists from round the world. Nothing could pry him from that money pit, where, thanks to Kirby's unpaid internship and the paid off debts, was straight profit after rent. 

  
  


The pine guard would be hard to part from as well. He assumed it was a “if you tell anyone about us we’ll have to kill you” type rule. And that goes double if you try to leave. If he wanted to leave he'd have dust off his lists of ways to fake his own death. 

 

Duck was a friend. Their relationship was strange and hard to define, but it was at least at friendship. They ate french onion soup together and Duck showed Ned a piece of him. A piece of who he was as a person and a man. And it has been a while since he's had someone who bore their soul to him. Ned almost thought about doing the same. 

 

And Aubrey…

 

Ned considered himself a selfish man. He knew he did everything for himself and for his own self gain. He knew that everything he's ever done was to save his own skin. It was always the easiest decision, to choose to save himself. No matter what the decision was, it was so, so easy. 

 

And so it was easy for him to decide not to tell her. It was easy for him to shovel the guilt away. It was easy for him to choose to spare her emotions, so he wouldn't have to see. It was easy for him to choose to keep her. 

 

It was easy for him to choose Aubrey. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you liked it please please please leave a comment! I have seven more Adventure Zone fics! I also have Yuri!!! On Ice, Voltron, Miraculous Ladybug, RWBY, Gravity Falls, Star Wars, and Kingsmen fics! Go read those if you're interested! Thank you so much!


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